Melina Mercouri with Arshad Afridi (1980)

Melina Mercouri with Arshad Afridi (1980)
Arshad Afridi, then a young diplomat at the Pakistani Embassy in Athens, poses with his guest, the prominent Greek actress and parliamentarian Melina Mercouri. The photograph was taken in 1980.

Mercouri achieved international fame with the musical Never on Sunday in 1960. After years of activism against her country's military junta, she was among the founding members of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, a leftist political party. About a year after this photograph was taken, she became Greece's minister for culture, staying in office from 1981 to 1989, and then from 1993 until her death from lung cancer in 1994.

Mr Afridi also had postings in Beirut and Abu Dhabi, but he now lives in Athens. He frequently visits Banda, near Kohat – the home of his father General Yousuf, who was also ambassador to the UK and Afghanistan.